Dive Brief:
- Data from consumer wearables are valuable in clinical care, and many physicians are using the information in their practice — but widespread adoption is hindered by limited workflow integration and other barriers, according to a survey published Wednesday by the American Medical Association.
- Eighty-six percent of U.S. physicians reported they at least sometimes reviewed data from their patients’ wearables, like information on heart physiology, oxygen and breathing, and sleep, according to the report, which also interviewed doctors from Canada, France, Germany, Spain and the U.K.
- But only 6% of doctors in the U.S. said wearable data was integrated into clinical workflows, like the ability to import information into electronic health records. “We have all this data that’s available, but it’s actually not actionable because we don’t have a way to get it into clinical workflow,” AMA CEO Dr. John Whyte said in an interview.
Dive Insight:
The use of wearables, like Apple Watches, Oura Rings or other consumer health-tracking devices, has increased significantly over the past decade, with nearly half of Americans owning a smartwatch or ring, according to an analysis published last month by Rock Health.
The data gleaned from wearables could affect the healthcare sector. Some patients are discussing device data with clinicians in the hope the information could help guide their care and provide additional, long-term insights into their health.
And physicians see potential clinical benefits from wearables too, according to the latest AMA report, which surveyed more than 2,200 doctors in six countries.
Nearly 80% of U.S. physicians and 74% of doctors outside the country reported at least some clinical advantages to using wearable data in patient care.
And when patients ask about wearable information, physicians typically respond. Nearly 30% of U.S. physicians said they took a clinical action at least weekly after reviewing data from consumer wearables.
But there are still several barriers to using wearable data in healthcare — including inadequate integration with physicians’ workflows, according to the survey.
Doctors often have limited time with patients, so they can’t spend an appointment digging through phones and devices to analyze wearable data, Whyte said. Plus, that information has to be documented in the EHR, so it’s searchable and accessible to other providers, he added.
Physicians need to be able to trust the data too. For example, if a wearable suggests a patient might have sleep apnea — a condition that causes breathing to start and and stop while asleep — the doctor has to understand what the device was measuring and whether it’s accurate, Whyte said.
“Where’s the clinical validation of this?” he said.
Physicians use information from wearables, but data isn’t integrated in workflows
% of physicians in six countries that report workflow integration, data use in weekly clinical actions and the likelihood of future integration
Reimbursement for monitoring wearable information could also have an impact. In the U.S., only 10% of physicians said they utilized CPT codes for remote monitoring. Those codes also require the use of Food and Drug Administration-approved devices with a clinician-directed plan of care, so there isn’t a dedicated pathway for reviewing data from consumer wearables, according to the AMA.
In comparison, 35% of German physicians reported they used DiGA, a reimbursement pathway for approved digital health applications, including those that integrate wearable data.
Still, successful use of wearable data requires more than payment. The right regulatory framework that promotes innovation while determining oversight based on the risk they could pose is also key, Whyte said.
“If physicians don’t believe in the data, and physicians don’t have a way to integrate it into workflow, it doesn’t matter what you pay,” he said. “It’s not gonna happen.”
